It would seem that on power-up or re-start, Avast slows down web access for Microsoft Windows Automatic Updates when it goes out and checks for Microsoft Windows XP updates.
The problem seems to occur only with Windows Automatic Updates. Whilst it is active,as noted by the icon in the system tray, the CPU usage is pretty close to 99%. When it is finished, taking about 15 minutes, the CPU usage cycles drop down to the low teens. I uninstalled Avast and the Windows Updates worked very quickly. After re-installing Avast, the problem was back.
I have searched the online forum but found nothing. Any help would be appreciated.
Specially because the auto updates are run just after boot, you can’t control very much.
My automatic updates are set to late in afternoon, why the hell Windows Update flood my logon in the morning? I hate when I can’t control/customize things…
Also, there is a service dependence of avast that could make logon time even worse when Windows is updating, as far I understood.
This is as Erroneus says as much to do with windows update trying to immediately connect to check for updates, this is usually only a problem around patch Tuesday. Many AVs and security applications also check for updates after boot, fortunately you can do something about it in avast, you can delay its check for updates.
Depending on your connection method, broadband (always connected) or dial-up you can edit the [InetWD] section of the “C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini” file, use a text editor and edit or add the line AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120 (broadband) or RASWaitSeconds=120 (dial-up). The 120 is a suggested delay (2 minutes) but you can set it to a longer duration if this clash of updates continues. It would be advisable to make a copy of your avast4.ini in a different location before you edit it.
Hello all … thanks for the replies. Just wanted to add that I have a Dell desktop and Dell laptop running with more or less the same configuration. Both machines are running ZoneAlarm firewall, Avast anit-virus, the same amount of memory and both running Windows XP Pro. The laptop have this behaviour consistently, but the desktop doesn’t. Go figure!
Forgive me DavidR, but I am familiar with Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras but I am not familiar with ‘patch Tuesday’! Please explain!
Thanks again. I will try the recommendations and see if it helps any.
I have been advocating Avast for a few years now. I have converted about 12 users, so far, and plan to continue.
I tried to modify the avast4.ini file but the entries in the one I have do not contain the variables listed above. This is what it has for variables with similar names:
The above is from the very bottom of the ini file. I can only assume that I should change AssumeAlwaysConnected to equal 1 and add the line AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120 below it for the wait time.
So, do you say that avast! icon spins when the update is in progress? If yes, it means it’s scanning something - so, it’s necessary to find out what it is scanning.
Open the resident protection window, select the particular resident providers (Standard Shield would be my first guess) and watch the “Last scanned” / “Scaned count” items - if it’s changing frequently…
Thanks for the replies. Please remember that I am a bit of a green-go at this and have zero experience with Windoze!
I never setup the connection as either always connected to the 'net or dial-up. The avast4.ini file had both the UseRAS=0 and AssumeAlwaysConnected=0. Neither of the lines RASWaitSeconds=xx or AlwaysConnectedWait=nn are in the avast4.ini file. As I use DSL, I checked the always connected box in the settings. I shutdown my laptop, started it and peeked into the ini file. I found UseRAS=0 and AssumeAlwaysConnected=1, but the AlwaysConnectedWait line was not there.
So I added it. Shutdown, restart and it still took the usual wait for Windoze update to finish. That is about a 14 minute wait every time I startup or reboot.
Is there somewhere in the registry where I can poke around and look at what avast sees these settings as?
By delaying the avast auto update (or you could set the avast, program settings, update (basic) to manual so there is no interference. But, having delayed it you are seeing that the likely cause is windows update.
I don’t like to allow window update auto check for updates and I have mine set to notify/ask, but currently I have it disabled and I only enable it after patch Tuesday to notify
There is no need to poke around in the registry we have told you what these settings do (have you clicked the link in Tech’s signature) plus the point of a .ini file is usually to avoid placing things in the registry.
Thank-you all for your responses. I have followed the suggestions. The laptop appears to be behaving better. I will post any happenings here. Particularly after Patch Tuesday. Are the Avast Makers considering putting in a default wait before it goes to the web to check for updates? I fully understand that you can’t be solving problems caused by others, but as a user, it would have been really helpful. I had to uninstall about 8 applications to figurew out there was a clash.
This is already present at avast settings.
Sure, just change (or add) AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds value into the [InetWD] section of avast4.ini file.
You could set the number of seconds to wait before attempting to update. The default is 30 but it may not be enough in some DSL systems. In this case, you can try increasing this e.g. to 60 (1 minute). That should be enough.
More details here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=1647
Alan’s experience: This is especially true during Windows update week. Windows automatic updates seem to hog resources even to just determine that updates do exist but you are just not allowed to download them yet (to prevent overload of Microsoft’s servers). So this is happening at every startup during the Windows update period until you have been permitted to download the updates. Although I do not have “smoking gun” logs to prove it (a bit hard to get on an overloaded system at startup) I am reasonably certain that the Windows automatic update process, at this time, can prevent the avast automatic VPS update from getting timely access to it servers and causing avast to report an automatic update error - especially on older, less powerful systems. This past week was Windows update week, some folks this week waited 4 or 5 days before being permitted to download the Windows updates through the automatic update process.
Please explain!